Ho Ho Ying

Visual Artist

1936 –

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Who is Ho Ho Ying?

Ho Ho Ying is a Singaporean abstract artist known for his avant-garde Chinese calligraphy and his Abstract Expressionistic works of art unique to Asian ideology. He is also an accomplished author under his reputed moniker 子木, and an art critic for the Singapore visual arts community.

Ho was born the eldest of five children, in Hainan. When he was born, his father had left the family to come to Kuala to work as a cook for a British family. Much of his childhood years was spent with his mother, a housewife on the island, and at the outbreak of Second Sino-Japanese War Ho and his mother had escaped the invaders' capture and reunite with the elder Ho in Kuala Lumpur in 1941. He was 5 when he arrived in the city, only to find that the city had fallen to the Japanese a year later. Life was harsh, but the studious boy continued his education with the Chung Hwa Confucian Primary School (尊孔小学). In school, he learnt basic Chinese calligraphy and art lessons in class, copying drawings made by his teacher on the blackboard. In his free time, he would immerse himself at comic book stalls along Petaling Street, poring through Chinese wuxia comics and copying the comic book characters back home. He continued school at Chung Hwa Confucian High School (尊孔中学) until in 1951, when his family relocated to Singapore. He attended the Chinese High School, and developed strong interest in art under the influence of school teachers Liu Kang and Chen Wen Hsi. As he was a poor and could not afford art materials, Chen would often offer him money to buy the art materials. Ho's confidence in his art grew as he was proficient with Chinese calligraphy and often won awards in school. When he was 18 years old, his mother died of cervical cancer shortly after giving birth to his youngest sister. Without their mother, Ho had to take on the responsibility of taking care of his siblings and a 4-and-half months old infant sister, while his father was away working in a British household. As his father earned little as a cook, Ho often had to seek credit for food and provisions from shop owners.

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Born
Jan 23, 1936
Wenchang
Nationality
  • Singapore
Education
  • Nanyang University
Lived in
  • Hainan
  • Wenchang

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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